Dead man's wisdom

A man I know who was dead came to lunch with his wife last Sunday. All I can tell you is his aorta ruptured somehow and he was flat-lined and the church was praying like mad, and then last Sunday he ate salmon at my kitchen table.

Steven says he "saw things" while he was hovering between heaven and earth, but that the things he "heard" were more interesting. What he heard was that the condition of your priorities at death cannot be altered, evermore. (He warned me that the revelation would sound trite.) He says the residue of this experience in his life has been that when he feels like giving money to someone, he gives it. When he thinks the Holy Spirit is directing him somewhere, he goes.

I remembered what Francis Schaeffer said in True Spirituality:

"Eternity will be wonderful, but there is one thing heaven will not contain, and that is the call, the possibility, and the privilege of living a supernatural life here and now by faith before we see Jesus face to face."

I have not had a "near-death experience"---or a "death experience." But many years ago my firstborn son was grieving and alone, and I was too self-absorbed in my own drama to notice. More than a decade later he asked me why I didn't comfort him then.

You see, I don't need a sermon to help me understand what "Hate what is evil" means (Romans 12:9). I hate my evil past with a perfect hatred. And I know firsthand what the end of a life of self-seeking priorities feels like. And if I can have an increase in that, a little every day, my Lord, I will be grateful. Anything beats the acrid taste of "Nevermore."

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